


Monster in the Closet

by HiddenDirector



Category: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Cartoon 2018), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Horror, I swear this started out cute, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-13
Updated: 2018-09-15
Packaged: 2019-07-11 18:58:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15978440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HiddenDirector/pseuds/HiddenDirector
Summary: When Raphael gets knocked into a little girl's room, he's asked to fight the monster in her closet.  When it drags him into its own world, that becomes a whole lot harder of a task.Raph's brothers have to find a way to save him from the strange world under the little girl's bed, while Raph gets help from a stranger to survive until they can reach him.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This started as a simple idea, "Raph and the guys have a tea party with a little girl." Somehow I managed to turn it into a horror story. To my friends on the discord server this was spawned from, I'm so sorry. (But not sorry.)

Raphael was having a bad night.

The giant mutant crab was bad enough.  The giant mutant crab having a shell that seemed completely impenetrable was a bonus amount of bad.  But the worst part?  The crab hit harder than Raph did.

“Holy _sheeellllll!_ ” Raph’s voice carried over the neighborhood as he was sent flying, unable to stop himself.  The good news was that the crab was also a great shot, as the huge turtle flew right through an open window and rolled across the floor until he hit the wall.  He slid down it, groaning.  “That crab should learn to play pool…”

Raphael pushed himself up, looking around.  The light was on, but he didn’t see anyone.  Well, that was the first really good thing to happen to him since the fight started.  The room he was in was pink.  Very pink, with flower decals on the wall.  There was a white bed with baby blue bedding, a matching dresser, a white table, and several dolls around it with teacups in front of them.  “Okay, so little kid’s room,” he muttered.  “At least they ain’t in.”  He cracked his neck, rolling his shoulder and started back over towards the window.  He couldn’t let the others fight that thing without him, they needed his pure muscle.

Raph froze when the door suddenly opened, turning slowly to look over his shoulder.  There was a little girl standing there in a nightgown, eyes wide as she stared at him.  A glass in her hand dropped out of it, and Raph dived quickly to catch it.  Not that it was quieter that way, as he was sure he made a racket just landing in the room, let alone hitting the floor to catch her glass.  Where were this kid’s parents?

This put Raph right under her as he lay on the floor, glass clutched in both hands.  She stood a moment, opening her mouth.  Before she could scream (which would _definitely_ draw attention), Raph shot up into a kneeling position, holding the water with one hand and gently covering her mouth with the other.  “Ssshhh, kid, I… uh… this isn’t what it looks like…” he said quietly, looking around.  He put the glass on the dresser next to the door and looked back at her.  “I’m gonna move my hand, but you have to be quiet, okay?”

The little girl stared at him a little longer, but then nodded when she seemed to realize that he hadn’t hurt her.  Raph took his hand away from her mouth, and she whispered shakily, “Are you the monster in my closet?”

Raph was taken aback.  He looked down at himself and how much bigger he was than her.  He didn’t want to admit it, but it wasn’t a stretch for her to make that assumption.  “No, kid, I’m not a monster.  I promise,” he said.

The little girl tilted her head, looking around.  “Then who are you?  And what are you doing in my room?” she asked.

The ninja stuck his head out of the door of her room, looking around.  No parents, no siblings, no one’s attention seemed to be drawn to them.  He pulled her out of the way of the door as gently as he could, closing it quietly.  He then sat down on the floor next to her.  “I’m Raphael.  I’m a… hero.”

The little girl’s face lit up, gasping.  “Are you here to _fight_ the monster in my closet?” she asked in wonder.  “That’s what heroes do, right?  They fight monsters!”

Raph opened his mouth to object, and then closed it.  Well… she wasn’t wrong.  They were fighting monsters.  “Yeah, kid, I can fight the monster.  First, I need to know your name.  And where’s your family?”

“Katie,” she answered while toeing at the carpet.  “Mommy’s in bed.  She works a lot, so she’s super tired.”

“And where’s your dad, Katie?” Raph asked.

“I dunno,” she said lighter, not looking at him.  “He left a long time ago.  It’s just mommy and me.”

Raph felt his heart hurt.  He knew what it was like only having one parent, but he at least had his brothers.  This poor kid had no one else.  “Alright, how about you show me where the monster is?” he asked, changing the subject.

Katie nodded and took his hand as he stood up, leading him over to a closet as pink as the rest of her room.  He gestured for her to stand back, and Katie ran behind the bed, ducking.

Raph knew there wasn’t a monster in the closet, but he still humored her.  No kid should be afraid of their own room, after all.  So he slowly pulled the closet door open, tensing as if he expected something to attack.  What caught him off guard was when he saw two red glowing dots.  Something in the back was staring back at him.  “What the shell?!” he yelled, preparing a tonfa and yanking the door the rest of the way open.

Whatever it was, the creature (mutant maybe?) dodged out of the way as soon as he parted the clothing inside, ducking under his legs and sliding like liquid under the bed.

No, not like liquid.  Like a shadow.

“Katie, get away from the bed!” Raph snapped at her.

Katie yelped and backed away quickly, climbing up on her tea table with tears in her eyes.  She was trying not to make too much noise he could tell, and she was brave for it.

“Stay there,” Raph said sternly, moving towards the bed and getting on his hands and knees.  He couldn’t see much under there, which was to be expected.  It was pretty dark.  But… wait, it was way too dark.  Why couldn’t he see any boxes or anything?  “Katie, you got anything you keep under here?”

“No, mommy says it’d attract dust bunnies,” Katie whispered back.

So why couldn’t he see the other side of the room through the underside of the bed?

Before Raph could fully process an answer for it, a pair of glowing red eyes suddenly appeared before him.  “Oh, sh-!”  That was all he managed before something grabbed him and dragged him under the bed, where he shouldn’t’ve even fit.  Into the darkness that lay there.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Raph's brothers follow his trail to Katie's room.

“I’m starting to get worried,” Michelangelo admitted as they followed the trajectory Raph had traveled after being hit by the giant mutant crab.  Said mutated crustacean had gotten away shortly after, which they weren’t too sorry about considering what it did to the biggest of them.  “How far could that thing have knocked him?”  They’d now run at least three city blocks.

“Considering how hard it hit him and Raph’s body mass?  Anywhere between two to five miles, honestly,” Donatello answered, using his tablet to keep track of the likeliest arc his body would’ve made.  “That’s only an estimation, though.”

“I bet he got stuck in a tree somewhere,” Leonardo said, landing on the next roof and leaning on his sword.  “Hasn’t called us because he’s too embarrassed.”

“As sure as I am that you’d love that, _Leon_ , I doubt it,” Donnie argued, dropping next to him.  “I’ve been trying to pick up the GPS on his phone, but it’s not happening.  It probably got crushed when he landed or something.”

“Or what if…” Mikey landed on Donnie’s other side and grabbed his arm.  “What if he was sucked into an alternate dimension?!”

“I don’t even know why that’d be the first place your brain goes,” Donnie pointed out.  He held up his tablet, which was displaying the estimated trajectory as he panned it across the sky.  It eventually led to a nearby home.  “Alright, according to my calculations, he landed somewhere over there.”

The boys looked where he was pointing, noticing a tiny, dilapidated house.  The outside looked like it was falling apart, and one window was open with the light on in the second floor.  They jumped down from where they stood and dashed to the house, jumping into a tree near the window.  The stayed silent as possible as they looked into the very pink room.

Inside there was a little girl in a pink nightgown crying while her mother tried to reassure her.  The mother looked exhausted, which wasn’t surprising as her daughter likely woke her up, and it was almost two in the morning.

“Katie, I’ve told you a million times, there are no such things as monsters in your closet,” the mother yawned.  “Now, go to bed.”

“But it was there, mommy!” Katie sobbed, pointing at the bed.  “It was in th-the closet, a-a-and then it w-went under the bed, and Mr. T-Turtle looked but was p-p-pulled under!”  She broke into another set of sobs.

The mother let out a sigh, rubbing her eyes.  “There was no giant turtle man,” she muttered.  “And no monster.  You were just having a nightmare.  Go back to _bed_ , Katie.”  She said it testily the second time, picking her daughter up and putting her in the bed.  The woman then left in spite of her objections, turning the light out and closing the door.

The three brothers looked at each other.  “Giant turtle man?” Leo echoed.

“It couldn’t be, coul- _Mikey!_   What are you doing?” Donnie hissed as the youngest turtle jumped on the window sill.

The little girl inside yelped, covering her head with the blanket.

“Hey, I’m sorry to scare you,” Mikey whispered, not moving any closer.  “We’re looking for our brother, and I think you met him.  The ‘giant turtle?’  His name is Raphael.”

Katie pulled the blanket down off her head, staring at him with wide eyes.  “You know the hero?  Are you a hero, too?” she whispered in return, climbing out of her bed.

Mikey nodded, waving his brothers over.  Leo and Donnie looked at each other and joined him at the window.  “I’m Mikey, and these are my other brothers,” he said, moving inside.

“I’m Leonardo.  Leo,” the blue-masked one greeted, leaning down and holding out a hand.

Katie slowly held out her own hand, taking the hand and shaking it.  “I’m Katie,” she replied.  She then looked at Donatello.  “Are you all heroes?”

“I guess,” Donnie said, shrugging.  “I’m Donatello.”

“We call him Donnie,” Mikey told her, kneeling down.  “Can you tell us what happened to Raph?”

Katie nodded and took his hand.  She pulled him over to a small table surrounded by dolls in chairs.  She moved the dolls and sat down, gesturing for them to do the same.  They looked uncertain, as the chairs were very small.  But she looked expectant, so Mikey and Leo each took a seat.  It was comical to say the least, as their shells barely fit.

“I’m good standing,” Donnie waved at her, leaning on the wall.  “Now, you were saying about Raphael?”

Katie folded her hands on the table, looking like a grown-up about to hold a meeting.  She likely saw her mother do the same thing many times.  “Raphael appeared in my room while I was getting water,” she said, pointing to the still-full glass on her dresser.  “He scared me at first because he’s really, really big.  But he was super nice, and he said he was going to fight the monster in my closet.  When he opened the closet, the monster came out and went under my bed.  I hid on the table so it couldn’t see me, and Raph went to look. Then he was pulled under.”  She looked at the table, looking guilty.  “It’s all my fault.  I shouldn’t’ve asked him to fight the monster in my closet.  It’s too scary.”

“Don’t worry,” Mikey reached over and put a hand on her head.  “Whatever happened, it wasn’t your fault, I promise.  Things like this happen to us all the time.”

“Yeah, we’re pretty much just weird magnets,” Donnie said.

“Can you tell us about the monster?” Leo asked.

“I saw him a few weeks ago,” Katie answered.  “I don’t know where he came from, but he just started living in there.  He doesn’t usually do anything scary, but lately, he’s been… _super_ scary.  He keeps coming out at night, and I’ll wake up to see him over my bed.”  She stood up and rooted around in a drawer in her dresser, taking out a picture.  “I drew him, but no one believes me.”

The brothers leaned over the table, looking at it in the light of the lamp she turned on near them.  Donnie put a hand on each of his brothers’ shoulders as he braced over them.  There was a crayon drawing of a black figure, horns protruding out of its head.  It had a set of white, pointed teeth, and red eyes.  It didn’t look like a solid figure, simply some kind of vague, elongated shape.

“Well, that’ll haunt my nightmares now,” Leo muttered.  “Nice.”

“This is the thing that got Raph?” Mikey whispered, voice shaking.

“It must be some kind of mutant or something,” Donnie said, looking over it.  “I can’t explain it being able to drag a turtle Raph’s size under that tiny bed, though.”  He gestured to the child-size bed behind them.

“I don’t know, either,” Katie said forlornly.  “I was scared when it happened and got my mommy.  But she still doesn’t believe me.”

“I don’t really blame her,” Donnie replied.  At the look they all gave he held up his hands in defense.  “I’m just saying, most people don’t believe in this kind of stuff.  I never said I didn’t.  It’s an extremely good possibility that exactly what she said happened.”

Mikey set his jaw, standing up.  “I’m going in there.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Donnie hissed, following quickly, Leo on their heels.  “First of all, Michael, we don’t even know if it’ll work.  We don’t know how it dragged him under there in the first place.  And that’s not even covering how _stupid_ of a plan it is to just dive into what’s apparently a whole different dimension blindly.”

“By the way, congrats on actually being right about that,” Leo put in there.  “But Donnie’s right, we can’t just jump in, as much as I would love to.  We need a backup plan.”

Donnie thought of it a moment, then pulled out his phone.  He scrolled through his contacts until he found who he was looking for.  Once she picked up, Donnie greeted with, “Hey, April, can you do us a favor?  And bring Casey.  We’re going to need both of you.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Raph wakes up not knowing where he is.

Raph groaned and put a hand to his head, opening his eyes slowly.  Oh, that hurt.  That really hurt.  Where the heck was he?

The huge turtle looked around and took note of his surroundings.  Not that there was much anyway.  He was in what looked like a canyon, the rocky structure of it a mix of browns and reds.  The sky looked a purplish-blue as if the sun were setting.  There was no sun to be seen, though.  Well, it _was_ night when… whatever happened to him happened.  Maybe it still was?  He stood up and tried to get his bearings.

At least, until a movement in the corner of his eye caught his attention.  Raph turned quickly, finding himself staring right into a pair of eyes.  Red eyes.

“Shell!” Raph yelped, stepping back and pulling his tonfa.  He took a swing at it, remembering the look of those glowing eyes when they pulled him under Katie’s bed.

Whoever it was, they yelped and jumped backward, diving behind the rock formation they’d been leaning on in a streak of white feathers.

Wait… white?

The thing that pulled him under had been black.

“Uh… hey,” Raph called awkwardly, watching the rock for more movement.  “Sorry, didn’t mean to... uh… startle you?  But you kinda scared me first.”

After a moment, two sets of fingers finally appeared around the rock, with black tips on their long nails.  Part of a head peeked out next, then one of the red eyes set in a pale face, framed by black hair that faded to white.  “Promise not to swing at me again?” they asked in a low voice.

“Promise, no more,” Raph said, putting his tonfa away and holding his hands up in peace.  “See?  I’m unarmed.  Come on out.”

The person ducked back behind the rock for a moment before finally stepping out.  They – _he_ – looked human at first glance.  Tall and slender, pale as death with red eyes shadowed with red paint to make them stand out even more.  His top lip was painted red as well, a single black stripe through the middle of his bottom one.  His black-to-white hair was loose and reached just past his shoulders.  It wasn’t until he finally started looking him over fully that he realized that the young man standing in front of him was far from human.  The white, feathered robes he wore only covered half of his legs in the front, where the legs protruding were off-white and scaled, coming to talons where his feet should have been.  From his hairline protruded a pair of white horns that swept back over the shape of his head and rounded back upwards at the back.

The crimson eyes staring at him started to look self-conscious as he was scrutinized.  “You… do not _look_ like an Ayuurian.  Not Earth-spawn, definitely.  But not Ayuurian.”

“Ayuu-what?” Raph asked, confused.  The… whatever he was clutched his robes and pulled them in closer, taking a step backward at the words.  “Whoa, whoa, I’m sorry.  I don’t know what’s going on.  I was lookin’ into a monster or something in a little girl’s closet, and suddenly I’m here.  Look, let’s start over.  I’m Raphael.  Raph, if you want.  Who’re you?”

The humanoid looked away from him, staring at the ground as if debating something with himself.  He finally said, “Xuanyao.  If you are not Ayuurian, you should not be here.”

“I don’t know what that means,” Raph said in exasperation.  “What in the shell is an Ayuurian?”

Xuanyao looked him over again, then took a few more steps back.  He reached behind his head, pulling a white hood attached to his robes up and over.  “Come with me,” he said quietly.

The turtle stood where he was a moment, then shrugged.  Xuanyao hadn’t given him a reason not to trust him yet.  And besides, he kind of owed the guy for almost beating him in the head with a tonfa.

Raph followed Xuanyao through the canyon, doing his best to keep up as the Ayuurian’s reptilian legs propelled him quickly through it.  Xuanyao dodged around boulders and rock formations, pausing every once in a while to look over his shoulder and make sure Raph was following.  His vivid red eyes stood out more the further they got, as things started to grow darker.  The atmosphere started to feel more oppressive, and Raph tensed reflexively.  Maybe following a complete stranger in an unfamiliar place was a mistake.

That thought was pushed from his mind as Raph had to skid to stop to avoid hitting Xuanyao as the Ayuurian suddenly stopped at the exit from the canyon.

Despite leaving the walls of the ravine, the air in the open forest before them felt far more unwelcome, seeming to push him back where he came from.  He felt himself take a step backward without even realizing it.

Xuanyao put a hand on his arm and stopped him.  “Don’t.  It will tempt you to go back but do not.  It is trying to trap you.  Do not listen to what it says.”

Raph looked at the young man and nodded.  He braced himself and focused on moving forward.  If he moved away from the canyon, he’d eliminate the temptation to go in.

After a while, the need to go back subsided.  That was good, but he was feeling more anxious the further they walked.  It felt like something was… watching them.  Not just from one spot, but _everywhere_.  He could swear he saw movement in the trees and brush every time he moved his head, always in the corner of his eye.  He tried to focus on Xuanyao, who was now moving slowly, cautiously.

“Where is this place?” Raph finally asked, moving up next to him.  “And why’s it so… dark?”

“You are in Ayuuria,” Xuanyao answered quietly, putting a finger to his painted lips to indicate that the mutant should keep his voice down as well.  “We are a world that lays parallel to Earth.  If you are not of here, you must be Earth-spawn.  However, you do not look like any Earth-spawn I have observed.”

“Could you stop calling us that?” Raph snapped.  “Earthlings even sounds more dignified than that.  And I’m a mutant.  Not many of us out there, but more are popping up each day.”

“I apologize.  I’m not used to speaking to an… Earthling.  To answer your second question, it is dark because of the infection,” the Ayuurian whispered.  “It spreads and casts everything in darkness, including the people.  I do not know what it will do to an Earthling, so do not let it touch you.”

“Oh… uh… alright,” Raph looked around, including on the ground.  He didn’t know what an infection looked like, but he had a feeling he’d know when he saw it.

Xuanyao suddenly stopped, putting his arm out to halt Raph as well.  “Ssshhh…” he hissed, looking around.  He took a cautious step forward, and then looked behind them.  His crimson eyes widened, pulling his arm back and shoving Raph forward this time.  “Run…” he said shakily, starting forward himself.

“What-?” Raph started, turning to look as well.

The ninja didn’t get a chance to see whatever it was, as Xuanyao pushed him harder, making him stumble as they began dashing through the forest.  “ ** _Run!_** ” he demanded louder, dropping the pretense of quietness as he only held back for a few moments before picking up speed and dashing ahead of the turtle.

Raph didn’t know what they were running from, didn’t usually like running in the first place.  But he could hear something crashing through the forest behind them, breaking branches and brush.  Something screeched, a sound that reminded him of microphone feedback, but loud enough that it could’ve been then fed through a bullhorn.  Raph staggered and clutched his head, feeling like his ears were going to explode.  He fell to his knees and shook his head, trying to clear it.

Whatever was chasing them, the shadow of it spread across him as it pounced, and he braced himself to have to fight back.  But then a second screeching joined, and he couldn’t take the sound anymore.  He felt himself finally lose consciousness from the sensory overload, but not before seeing something huge and white streak over him.


End file.
